Kevin Balfe

Republic Of Ireland season ticket holder,Celtic,liverpool,JFT96,music,also love my golf&cycling. you don't get 2 live this life twice.

[Daniel Lambert @dlLambo]

As the IDF committed genocide in Gaza Maccabi Tel Aviv staff serving in the IDF beamed back a video (and even fired a tank round for them) to the squad who cheered them on.

Jesus Christ......deeply disturbing stuff

#StopTheGame

[Kevin Balfe @challobalfe]

@scotsunsport Cos there amateurs!!!

[YBIG @YouBoysInGreen]

Last thing players need is a soulless, empty stadium.

If not using tickets, try pass on to those who will.

Post here if tickets available and we will retweet.

Try get as many bums on seats as possible

#Tickets

[Sophy Ridge @SophyRidgeSky]

Went on a bit of a rant on telly comparing how Chelsea & Sheffield Wednesday have been dealt with

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Best analysis of the situation I’ve read 🙌

[Kevin Balfe @challobalfe]

@DougieCritchley Stealing Coefficient points aswell,

[celtic Jaime 🍀 @celtic_jaime]

He’s bang on 🎯

[Kevin Balfe @challobalfe]

@SkySportsNews LIARS

[Kevin Balfe @challobalfe]

Open season on Martinelli,
Scumbag. #ARSLIV

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

🧵 THREAD: Manchester City, the charges, the evidence, & how justice was delayed.

Manchester City weren’t charged because rivals complained or because they 'spent big'. They were charged because evidence shows a decade-long system designed to hide owner funding, inflate revenue & deceive & obstruct investigations.

The Premier League’s case didn’t appear overnight.
It began in late 2018, triggered by Football Leaks documents - internal emails, invoices, contracts - that contradicted what City had been telling UEFA & the Premier League for years.

Those emails are the backbone of everything that followed. At the centre of the case is a simple allegation: Manchester City repeatedly disguised owner funding as commercial revenue.

FFP rules require sponsorship income to be real, independent, and market value. What the emails suggest is that City’s biggest 'sponsors' weren’t paying what City claimed - Abu Dhabi was.

Take Etihad as an example. Leaked emails show City executives discussing Etihad paying only a fraction of headline sponsorship deals, with the shortfall quietly topped up by Abu Dhabi government-linked entities.

One email explicitly references ensuring funds 'come through the correct channels' so they are not detected as separate sources of funding. That is the definition of disguised equity. This wasn’t a one-off.

Emails show Etihad deals where shirt sponsorship, stadium, training kit & campus naming rights were all inflated wildly out of line with the market at the time - later confirmed in the actual contracts, not just drafts.

The numbers in the leaks weren’t hypothetical. They were real. UEFA auditors suspected this as early as 2013–14.

They found £47m of 'intellectual property' sales boosting income, a £5m 'win bonus' paid for an FA Cup final City lost & sponsorships from Aabar and Etisalat above market value.

City were fined & restricted - but crucially, UEFA never saw the full records. Why? Because City refused to provide them. This becomes a pattern.

When UEFA charged City again in 2020, they imposed a two-year Champions League ban. City appealed to CAS & had it overturned. City fans shout 'INNOCENT', shared out of context screenshots. They're wrong.

CAS did not rule that City were innocent. CAS ruled that UEFA could not meet the burden of proof - largely because City did not co-operate. City were fined €10m specifically for obstructing the investigation.

Even City's own expert witness was denied access to key information that could have disproved disguised funding. 'No evidence' doesn’t mean nothing happened. It means the evidence was withheld.

CAS explicitly stated that disguised equity funding could not be excluded - only that neither side could conclusively prove their case. That vagueness was entirely engineered.

After CAS, new emails emerged suggesting Simon Pearce, a senior City executive & Sheikh Mansour adviser, had given misleading testimony under oath. City declined to comment. Again.

While all this was happening, the Premier League had already been investigating City for years. City’s response? Delay. Delay. Delay. Obstruct. Litigate.

Court filings later revealed City challenged the legality of the investigation itself, filed repeated procedural applications, refused to hand over documents, forced arbitration, then challenged arbitration & tried to keep the entire process secret.

A High Court judge called it out in 2021. “It is surprising, and a matter of legitimate public concern, that so little progress has been made.” That’s legal spiel for stonewalling.

This obstruction accounts for 35 of the 115 charges alone & that’s before we get to the secret payments.

City declared Roberto Mancini's salary as £1.45m per year. On the same day he signed with City, he also signed a “consultancy” deal with Al Jazira - a club owned by the same man who owns City - worth £1.75m per year. That deal was explicitly marked confidential.

Emails show City executives arranging the payments. Same signatures. Same people. Same day. The allegation is obvious: City paid Mancini off the books.

Leaked documents allege undeclared payments for Yaya Touré, including via third parties. These aren’t rumours. They’re contracts, emails, invoices. This is why there are 14 charges relating to manager and player remuneration.

Then there’s image rights. City told UEFA they sold player image rights for a £24.5m lump sum to comply with FFP. Later, they quietly resumed earning millions from image rights again.

The buyer? A company whose directors included City’s own senior legal officer. Independent journalists couldn’t even establish its genuine commercial purpose.

All of this feeds into the core allegation across 54 charges: City failed to provide accurate financial information in good faith. Not once. Not twice. But repeatedly, over nearly a decade.

Now add politics. UK government departments discussed City’s charges with the British embassy in Abu Dhabi. Those communications are sealed - because releasing them could 'damage relations with the UAE'. City insist they are not state-backed. Then why is the state involved?

Yet still, the delays continue. A 12-week closed-door hearing. Half a million documents. Years of silence. City remain 'innocent' - not because the evidence disappeared, but because the verdict hasn’t landed.

This is why the case matters. If City walk away with a fine, it tells every club to cheat cleverly, obstruct endlessly, spend on lawyers, not compliance.. & the rules collapse.

This isn’t about jealousy. It isn’t about success. It’s about whether financial regulation in English football is real - or optional for the richest club in the league.

The evidence exists. The emails exist. The delays are documented. Now only one question remains, do the rules apply to City or not?

[Kevin Balfe @challobalfe]

@rayfp Incredible

[Roscommon GAA @RoscommonGAA]

Motion 1.

In light of the recent UN report that Allianz Insurance is profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestine, the GAA should begin the process of ending all commercial involvement with Allianz.

PASSED

#RosGAA

[Steven @StevenMcinerney]

This is genuinely absurd behaviour. Scandalous and a real insult to every other footballer that has missed out on big games due to following the rules like everyone else. It reeks.

[YBIG @YouBoysInGreen]

Win one of these beautiful Troy Parrott prints 🦜 . To enter just repost.

Courtesy of @matthewjiwood

[Balls.ie @ballsdotie]

Reactions to Troy Parrott's winner.

1. Dublin airport

[Keepitonthedeck @Keepitonthedeck]

One of the best quotes this page has ever posted!

“Leadership is very easy when you’re doing something you care about.”
– Seamus Coleman on RTÉ Sport before facing Hungary.

Just think about it…
You’re 37.
Your club barely plays you because they think your legs are gone.

Your country leaves you out early in the campaign because you’re not getting minutes.
Then, when everything is slipping away, they call you back.

And what do you do?
You set the standard, and drag everyone with you from the brink… all the way to a World Cup playoff that looked impossible not long ago.

Never underestimate character. Always back it.

[Inside The SPFL @AgentScotland]

According to Desmond, Rodgers is to blame for Celtic failing, not the structure.

The same structure that seen the last 5 Celtic managers (including BR 1st spell) fail in UCL qualifiers, in ties they've been massive favourites for.

But it's definitely not the Board or structure.

[TIMES OF GAZA @Timesofgaza]

An Israeli soldier posted a photo showing about 20 abducted Palestinian civilians in Khan Younis with their hands tied and eyes blindfolded. A chilling image of the occupation’s brutality.

[liam cunningham @liamcunningham1]

The Global Sumud Flotilla is approximately 3 days from Gaza with nothing but humanitarian aid on board. They have Naval support from 3 countries now. Don’t rely on mainstream media to keep you properly informed.
Your attention and support is vital. Repost everything!